Creolization in Caribbean Music - French

     In chapter 2 of "Tour de Force: A Musical Journey of the Caribbean", I was introduced to many interesting musical styles. These all came from French-Caribbean countries. Just like slaves from countries at the hands of Great Britain, slaves under French control had their cultural practices suppressed. Therefore, they were forced to adopt some French music and dances while still holding some African flair. 

    The first example of a creolized music style is Zouk. Zouk is an "amalgamation of a wide variety of local and imported musical styles" (Gangelhoff & LeGrand, 2019). Zouk music is not specific to one Caribbean country, but a few being Martinique, Guadaloupe and Haiti. Zouk was first known as a dance party, and was derived from the French word 'secouer' that means to 'to shake' (Evans, 2023). Zouk music is sung in French Creole making it accessible and popularized to a larger audience. Zouk includes traditional and high tech instruments such as synthesizers, a brass section, guitars, gourd shakers, the tumba, conga and a drum section. These all come together to make an interesting an upbeat sound. Below is a picture of the Guadeloupean band Kassav' that basically put zouk music on the map. 

Photo of band Kassav' taken from https://worldmusiccentral.org/2018/06/29/artist-profiles-kassav/

    Here is a video of Kassav' playing their song "Mwen Di Ou Awa". This song was so catchy to me even though I didn't understand one word. The rhythm was smooth and I enjoyed the syncopation as well as the call-and-response aspects. The song immediately kicked off and made me want to get up and dance. Personally I enjoyed the vocals of the background singers and I think it was my favorite part of this fast and high energy song. Although I do not have the best musical ear, I could distinctly hear and appreciate the riff that played because it gave the song such definition and structure.

    Another example of creolization in music is the genre compas direct, or konpa dirék, from Haiti. Compas is a blend of jazz and a modern version of meringue music. The sound was invented and popularized in the 1950s. Compas is an upbeat style of dance music which is usually sung in Creole, French, English, Spanish and Portuguese. Compas sounds include saxophones, trumpets, trombones, synthesizers, guitars and some traditional instruments from Haiti like the tanbou drum, conga and tom tom, all of which are played in sync. Compas is slower than the typical merengue, but still holds onto its jazz elements. The lyrics have wide topic variations that range from romance to religion and politics. Below is a picture of Nemours Jean-Baptiste, who is said to be the father of kompa.

Photo taken from https://www.vintagemusic.fm/artist/nemours-jean-baptiste-2/

    Here is a video by the popular compas group Djakout Mizik performing their song 'La Familia'. Immediately when I heard this song I picked up on the Latin aspect. The rhythm was quick and grabbed my attention. I enjoyed how I mainly heard horns and drums. I also noticed that in the song there was English, Spanish and creole words and that was very interesting to me. Listening to the song had me rocking from side to side because it was so upbeat and seeing the people dancing in the video made it no easier. I think my favorite part of this song was at the end when one of the artists started rapping in English. This took me by surprise, because there was now a third language, and a more familiar musical style that I was used to hearing.

    One discipline that was also creolized in the French colonies was the dance style contredanse. Because French colonists wanted to maintain ties with France, they introduced many traditions to their slaves. I think that this was also a way of suppressing African culture. Contredanse is European ballroom dance that is done in couples to a specific music and has set formations. Below is a picture of Europeans in a ballroom performing contredanse.

Photo taken from https://picryl.com/media/contredanses-langlaise-23aebf

    Just like most things, African slaves enhanced the dance to make it a little more suitable for themselves. They added drums and horns, and the dance moves are a bit more fluid and wild while still being poised. Below is a video of the dance being done in Haiti.



References

Abrahan felix. (2013, April 16). Djakout Mizik - La Familia [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA6KWOKSMV4

André, V. (2021, April 1). Haitian Music Industry’s Dirty Secret: It Doesn’t Exist. The Haitian Times. https://haitiantimes.com/2018/07/18/haitian-music-industrys-dirty-secret-it-doesnt-exist/

[Contredanses] L’anglaise - PICRYL - Public Domain Media Search Engine Public Domain Search. (2023, February 2). PICRYL - Public Domain Media Search Engine. https://picryl.com/media/contredanses-langlaise-23aebf

Evans, X. (2023, January 10). What is Zouk Music? A Brief History. WHAT a TUNE. https://whatatune.com/what-is-zouk-music-a-brief-history/

Gangelhoff, C., & LeGrand, C. (2019). Tour de Force: A Musical Journey of the Caribbean. Sound Caribbean.

Kilti Lakay Nou Sé Nou. (2021, June 27). bal kontredans [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuGINV9wyz4

Kontradans: Haitian Contra Dancing. (n.d.). Haitian Music. https://www.haitianmusic.net/haitian-folk-music/kontradans-haitian-contra-dancing/

MasterClass. (2021, August 4). Kompa Music Guide: A Brief History of Kompa Music - 2023. MasterClass. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/kompa-music-guide

NEMOURS JEAN-BAPTISTE. (n.d.). https://www.vintagemusic.fm/artist/nemours-jean-baptiste-2/

Romero, A. (2021, August 2). Artist Profiles: Kassav | World Music Central. World Music Central | Your Connection to Traditional and Contemporary World Music, Including Folk, Roots, Global Music, Ethno and Crosscultural Fusions. https://worldmusiccentral.org/2018/06/29/artist-profiles-kassav/

VIKING DE MUSIQUE. (2018, March 3). Kassav - Mwen Di Ou Awa ( CLIP ORIGINAL ) 1984 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEmviW4eWAU

Zouk Music Genre Overview. (n.d.). AllMusic. https://www.allmusic.com/style/zouk-ma0000002942

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creolization in Caribbean Music - English

Image
  In chapter 2 of "Tour de Force: A Musical Journey of the Caribbean", there were several examples of the creolization theme but let’s look at one from Trinidad and Tobago. The musical genre we are looking at is calypso. Calypso style music, according to the book is a “vehicle for social protest”. When listening to calypso music, it’s important to do just that. Listen! Really take in the lyrics because they are usually controversial or satirical. There have been many times when I was listening to calypso music and have had a good laugh or resonated with an opinion or life lesson because of the lyrics. Calypso came to be because enslaved Africans were forbidden from playing drums and other instruments. As well as they weren’t allowed to gather, so these people found another means of communicating, often to make fun of slave masters, and a very entertaining way might I add. And thus, calypso was born.     Calypso music evolved from a blend of French, English, Spanish a...
Read more

Creolization in Caribbean Music - Spanish

Image
     There are lots of Spanish music styles that exemplify the theme of creolization. The one I'll  be discussing is the plena. Plena is an African influenced genre that can be found in Puerto  Rico as well as in the Dominican Republic. The Puerto Rican plena is known as "el periodico  cantado" or "the sung newspaper"  (Maynard, 1998) because it is a short song thar described  events or critiqued society, similar to calypso in Trinidad and Tobago. For this reason, plena  was popular among the working class, forcing the city to try to ban this music because  persons  from the upper class in Puerto Rico complained about it being indecent and  distasteful  (MasterClass, 2021). As mentioned before, plenas have African roots but also  influences from native Taino and European. It is a blend of African rhythms with other Puerto  Rican styles like bomba. Plenas consist of alternatives of stanzas and refrains and there i...
Read more